


He Knows

by LunaLeDragonet



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Hollow doesn't doesn't understand, Hollow is real young, Hollow uses it/its pronouns, Like only a little older than Ghost, Pale King knows that Hollow isn't hollow, Pure, anyway, as Pale King would put it, because they are hollow, he does not care, on to the story, so they're smol, they do not think of themselves as a real being, they're actually more hollow in this one than any others I've read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:40:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24093730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunaLeDragonet/pseuds/LunaLeDragonet
Summary: The one in which the Pale King talks to the supposed Pure Vessel.--------------------------The one in which the Pale King is a better father than most think.
Relationships: The Hollow Knight | Pure Vessel & The Pale King
Comments: 2
Kudos: 76





	He Knows

"I know you are not hollow."

It did not reply.

The Pale King had taken it out here and flown it through the Path of Pain instead of it going through on it's own.

It had not protested. And after the incessant training that it hadn't let up on, day and night, except when the Pale King had taken it back to it's room and ordered it to sleep, it's body had felt a little better, being carried tightly in His multiple arms.

And now, He was just sitting next to it. Watching the sky fade to black, somewhat reminiscent of the Void making up it's body.

Of course, it does not feel anything at the resemblance. Simply the numbness that has been settled in it's chest since birth. It would be comforting, if it could feel comfort.

It did not feel resentment at the fact that it could not feel.

The Pale King looked at it. It looked back at him.

As usual, he does not see anything in it's eyes. _Their eyes_ , he thinks unbidden. 

The chime in his heart tells him that this Vessel is not entirely pure. He wonders if they are intentionally deceiving him.

That thought makes his heart twist. Does the energy he radiates really scare even Vessels into lying to remain unpunished?

It has not moved, despite the emotions twisting the Pale King's face.

_"I know you are not hollow."_

Nothing sparked at that comment. No understanding, no confusion, no fear. It simply held it's blank gaze with the Pale King's dark eyes. If it had the ability to discern emotion in any way, it would've seen conflict, fear, worry, sadness, and everything in between.

It did not have any such ability, and so it just kept looking at the Pale King until instructed otherwise or until He looked away.

A while passed. He patted it once, twice, and then looked back off into the darkening sky. It looks in the same direction.

"I am right, aren't I? You aren't pure, like I thought. But you're the closest thing I have. You don't have to be scared of being thrown away like your siblings."

It only registered His words, but since none of it was an order, it did not do anything. Not even look up as He patted it's head again.

Something appeared in it's head. A memory of when the Pale King had brought it out of the Abyss. When it had looked back for the first time and seen its sibling clinging to the edge of the platform. When it had simply watched as the sibling had slipped, lost it's grip, as it's tiny, weak fingers disappeared from the edge and it plummeted back down into the ground below.

It was as it watched the sibling fall, without moving to help, with doing nothing but watch, that the Pure Vessel had realized that nothing had sparked in it's Void at the scene.

That was the moment it had realized that it was hollow, as the Pale King had wanted.

He put his arm around the little Vessel sitting next to him and pulled them closer. Their head fell against his side for a moment, and then they lifted it back up to watch the sunset with him.

He sighed.

Perhaps this Vessel was imperfect, as all the others had been.

And if they were, he would not throw them back into the Abyss. He would raise them as you would a child.

And when they were strong enough to take on the Radiance, he'd cross all his fingers, all his arms and all his legs and his tail, and pray to every being higher than the Wyrm that they would succeed.

If not...

  
Then he really screwed this up, didn't he?


End file.
